Northeast African Studies

Freeman, Dena.
The Generation of Difference: Initiations in Gamo, Sidamo, and Borana (Oromo)
Northeast African Studies - Volume 7, Number 3, 2000 (New Series), pp. 35-57

Michigan State University Press

Dena Freeman - The Generation of Difference: Initiations in Gamo, Sidamo, and Borana (Oromo) - Northeast African Studies 7:3 Northeast African Studies 7.3 (2000) 35-57 The Generation of Difference: Initiations in Gamo, Sidamo, and Borana (Oromo) Dena Freeman Cambridge University Introduction The people of the Gamo highlands are unusual in that they are the only Ometo-speaking people that carry out initiations. Moreover, initiatory systems are not found as part of the cultural fabric of any other highland Omotic-speaking people at all. Where we do find initiatory systems, however, is amongst the Cushitic-speaking pastoralists who live in the lowland areas throughout much of south and southwest Ethiopia. How, then, can we explain the presence of initiatory systems among the farmers of the Gamo highlands? At first sight the Gamo initiations look very different from the initiations of the Cushitic-speakers, and one might be tempted to argue that they are something quite different altogether. Indeed, previous scholars have treated them as entirely unrelated phenomena, writing about the Gamo "halak'as" on the one hand, and the lowland Cushitic "Gaada system" on the other. In this paper I argue that if we broaden our analytic gaze to consider the region in general, instead of focusing on individual groups, then we can clearly see that these cultural phenomena are variations of the same thing. There is considerable variation in the form of the initiations...